THE MOMENT
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photos: Mike hettwer
Mike Hettwer
Tea Breakers each afternoon, with the sun
slipping toward the horizon, photographer Mike hettwer would
hurry from Bangladesh’s shipbreaking yards to a teahouse where
workers gathered for their evening break. “i noticed this golden light
that would gradually descend the wall for just a few minutes,” he
says. the men seemed to bask in it, lingering over the last of their
sweet tea before returning to the job at hand: dismantling derelict
ships, using little more than acetylene torches and their bare hands.
“when i started photographing in the yards, i was impressed by
the spectacle of massive ships being demolished,” says hettwer.
“But i soon realized the heart of this story is these men who risk
their lives for little more than a couple dollars a day.” During several
trips over six years, he followed them into the oil-slick bowels of
tankers and through the pitch-black passages of cargo ships. But his
most intense experience was feeling the shock wave when a ship ex-
ploded nearby and rushing to the scene. “the owners had sealed off
the yards, but from a distance i could see workers frantically carrying
the bodies of their friends out of the smoking wreckage.”
— Peter Gwin
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